Hands-on: Army of Two: The 40th Day (PSP)
by Randy Nelson 
{ Sep 21st 2009 at 4:20PM } 
When we recently had the opportunity to play EA's version of Army of Two: The 40th Day for PSP, we went into it with the realistic expectation that it would be the console game pared down to accommodate the portable's controls and capabilities. What we quickly found was a game designed specifically for PSP that conjures memories of top-down arcade shooters such as Mercs and Ikari Warriors.
It's very much an arcade game, with its own unique art style and controls, but it still sticks to the console game's plot -- and employs its unique Aggro mechanic with some nice results.
It's very much an arcade game, with its own unique art style and controls, but it still sticks to the console game's plot -- and employs its unique Aggro mechanic with some nice results.
Gallery: Army of Two: The 40th Day (PSP)
In the level we played, mercs and seriously good bros, Salem and Rios, were fighting their way through the streets of Shanghai, on their way to the city zoo -- a standout level from the console game. We controlled one of the two while the CPU backed us up, but the game does support local, ad hoc co-op.
The controls were dead simple: Move with the analog stick, shoot in eight directions using a combination of the four face buttons. (Yes, it's a dual stick shooter, more or less.) It's also possible to crouch and roll (handy for ducking and evading enemy fire) and make use of the copious amount of cover the stages offer. As in the console game, players can issue commands to their partner to advance, stay put, get aggressive or get sneaky.
The command system worked, but given the rapid arcade-style pacing of the action it was sometimes hard to even remember (or want to use) the orders to any degree. As we carved a path toward the zoo, wave upon wave of 40th Day soldiers came at us -- most simply shooting, others manning turrets and a few heavies that required some strategy to bring down.
This is where those buddy commands actually worked quite well. Faced with a flame thrower heavy, we told our AI amigo to go on the offensive, which raised his Aggro meter and made us virtually invisible to the enemy, who we were able to flank and shoot his tanks until he exploded. The tactic also worked well against enemies on turrets and yetis. (OK, so we made that last one up.)
We collected a lot of money pick-ups along the way, which will be used to buy things from weapons dealers in the final game. There are also temporary power-ups that increase the killing power of current weapons, for example.
Our time with the game was limited to a rather small section of one level, but it was still enough to make us fans of the unique art direction and use of the Aggro mechanic in a game of this type. We're hoping the final version offers up more variety in its stages, though, especially plenty of larger setpiece events / encounters -- like the airliner that crashed right in front of us -- to keep things exciting.
The controls were dead simple: Move with the analog stick, shoot in eight directions using a combination of the four face buttons. (Yes, it's a dual stick shooter, more or less.) It's also possible to crouch and roll (handy for ducking and evading enemy fire) and make use of the copious amount of cover the stages offer. As in the console game, players can issue commands to their partner to advance, stay put, get aggressive or get sneaky.
The command system worked, but given the rapid arcade-style pacing of the action it was sometimes hard to even remember (or want to use) the orders to any degree. As we carved a path toward the zoo, wave upon wave of 40th Day soldiers came at us -- most simply shooting, others manning turrets and a few heavies that required some strategy to bring down.
This is where those buddy commands actually worked quite well. Faced with a flame thrower heavy, we told our AI amigo to go on the offensive, which raised his Aggro meter and made us virtually invisible to the enemy, who we were able to flank and shoot his tanks until he exploded. The tactic also worked well against enemies on turrets and yetis. (OK, so we made that last one up.)
We collected a lot of money pick-ups along the way, which will be used to buy things from weapons dealers in the final game. There are also temporary power-ups that increase the killing power of current weapons, for example.
Our time with the game was limited to a rather small section of one level, but it was still enough to make us fans of the unique art direction and use of the Aggro mechanic in a game of this type. We're hoping the final version offers up more variety in its stages, though, especially plenty of larger setpiece events / encounters -- like the airliner that crashed right in front of us -- to keep things exciting.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JXCgunrunna @ Sep 21st 2009 4:23PM
theres a PSP version? News to me. sounds like it could be fun tho
Freak Mojo @ Sep 21st 2009 4:27PM
Lol.. that was news to me too. I am definitely going to put this on my PsP's radar though. Sounds like it could be fun.
emirabal @ Sep 21st 2009 8:01PM
This one came way out of left field, i didnt even know they were making one for psp until now, so i guess ditto your post.
Sly (Now with less shake, more bake!) @ Sep 21st 2009 10:14PM
they've reported this version a couple times.
Nugent @ Sep 21st 2009 4:38PM
Sounds like Killzone: Liberation, which was a lot of fun despite being stupidly hard. Hopefully, this game won't have snipers off-screen blowing your head off while you fight guys that are on screen.
Space @ Sep 21st 2009 4:40PM
and call yourself Nugent? psh
pax copia @ Sep 21st 2009 4:50PM
Killzone Liberation is a great game, one of my favorites. I don't think it's that hard.
Nugent @ Sep 21st 2009 5:02PM
I didn't say the game was bad, in fact I said it was a lot of fun. It's also one of my favorite PSP games, but it still had stupid and artificial difficulty spikes. Several times in the game you'd get attacked by 2-3 Helghast up close while some guy off the screen blasted you with a sniper rifle or a missile launcher. The only way to get by those sequences was to die a few times until you had the location and firing pattern of the invisibile enemy memorized.
yamugushi @ Sep 21st 2009 6:07PM
It LOOKS like K:L but the game play doesn't sound the same. BTW K:L wasn't that hard.
dgknight500 @ Sep 21st 2009 10:17PM
KZ: Liberation is one of my all time favorite games... So much fun playing online. If this is just half as good as Liberation, then its a 1st day buy!
Space @ Sep 21st 2009 4:41PM
can't wait to game share this one...BOOYAH! in yo face future of gaming!
Maverick Saturn (Igor) @ Sep 21st 2009 4:48PM
Buying :D
Tha0racle @ Sep 21st 2009 4:58PM
Looks good , I may pick this up when it goes down in price a bit.
RedSonRising @ Sep 21st 2009 5:04PM
playing thru Army of Two couch co-op finally and im very impressed. it looks great, plays pretty well and its tons of fun w/ a friend right next to you. havent played splitscreen in forever tho, takes some gettin used to.
if i had a psp id definitely check this out; i like arcady shooters and a portable Ao2 sounds like a great idea
Silicon Siren @ Sep 21st 2009 5:45PM
Wow a handheld port that doesn't look/sound completely terrible. I might consider renting this.
partner @ Sep 21st 2009 9:37PM
Not sure about "ports", but there are lots of beautiful looking, sounding, and playing PSP games.
Freakwincy42 @ Sep 21st 2009 11:14PM
sweet, a reference to Mercs. i played the crap out of that game back in the day. good times man. i'll have to give this one a shot.
Frank @ Sep 22nd 2009 12:50AM
Is that...A HIND D!?
Jasmino924 @ Sep 23rd 2009 11:53AM
It sounds ok but I'm a bit concerned that this will be one of those "port to all consoles games". It really doesn't look like they put much time aand dedication into the handheld version and from what I've read it seems like they have just been focusing on the "static console" versions.
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